Enjoying the little things.

 As I write this, I have just returned from visiting family in Portland. It was a lovely visit and the weather cooperated for the most part, which is all one can ask of the Pacific Northwest in December!  I began to wonder if we would ever make it to Portland, when our visit, originally planned in October, was derailed by COVID. It is an unexpected bonus that the weather has been good in the rainiest part of the year. It was not the only bonus of the trip!

I was anxious about flying in the age of COVID, after seeing so many reports of angry travellers making scenes on planes. In actual fact, everyone behaved and the flight crews had a firm handle on everything. Our flights out (Milwaukee to Dallas to Portland) all arrived early and we landed in sunshine, reflecting off the puddles of the recent rain. We stayed in a comfortable AirBnB, which gave us flexibility to do our own thing while spending lots of time with family. We checked some things off the bucket list and missed a few others. The main purpose of the visit, of course, was to see the grandchildren, who had grown by leaps and bounds in the almost two years that COVID has kept us apart!  It is the little things that I will remember the most about our trip. We played board games and shared pizza. Our son's new fiancée made us paella, sharing her Spanish heritage with us, and we got to meet her son, who is soon to be our seventh grandchild! We revisited Powell's City of Books, the booklover's dream. And then there were the donuts! Portland is a big donut city; you can even take donut tours! We discovered a Voodoo Donuts location only a couple of miles from our lodgings and we indulged in decadent sweetness in a bright pink box. (If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend the Maple Bacon slices!) 

Our flights home were not as smooth. The first flight was delayed by almost exactly the amount of time we had to make the second flight. The climax to an anxious day was a run through Dallas airport worthy of the movie Home Alone! We made the flight and arrived in Milwaukee before midnight.

 Portland has much stricter rules around masking, with some restaurants asking for proof of vaccination to eat inside. Consequently the rate of infection is much lower than Wisconsin but the threat of the virus was always there in the background. Testing the kids if they have a sniffle is routine. So what are my takeaways from the trip? Flexibility is a big one. If you have the chance to go, take it! Work with the constraints and enjoy the small things. The world will open up again one day.